GPhone-iPhone Browser Battle: Google Android G1 Faster, iPhone Better

How does the Web surfing experience on Google’s (GOOG) new G1 smartphone shape up next to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 3G? The G1 seems to finish loading most Web sites faster than the iPhone, but Apple’s intelligent site scaling, “pinch” zoom, and content-aware, double-click zooming make it, in our opinion, a better gadget for browsing the Web.

In an admittedly informal, unscientific test, we recorded both phones going to the same Web sites in real-time. (Video embedded below.) Both phones were connected to the same wi-fi hotspot on our Internal network. (With a very fast Verizon backbone.) Both phones had their browser and history caches cleared immediately before our test so neither would have an unfair advantage. And we tried to hit “submit” at precisely the same instant on both phones.

The G1 finished completely loading most sites faster than the iPhone did, with the exception of Wikipedia. Google’s phone did especially well on complex sites. But that’s not necessarily the best indication of usability: You can start reading most sites before the page is fully loaded.

The iPhone’s default scaling and zoom features, in our opinion, make it easier to start reading a partially loaded Web site than Google’s default, which is to zoom in on the upper-left corner of a page; often an ad or navigation bar. Minor personal preference: The iPhone’s gesture-based scrolling — pushing a page up or down, right or left — is smoother than the G1’s.

The good news: If it wants to, Google can make many changes to its browser and OS via a software update — though the G1 will never be able to have the iPhone’s multi-touch “pinch” zooming because its touchscreen only supports one finger at a time.

Any more tests you’d like us to perform? Any first-day experiences you’d like to share about the G1? Sound off in comments or reach us by email at [email protected]